Nkandla’s last stand

ONE DAY in the early 1980s The Star dispatched a team to cover an MK attack on Eskom power stations in what was then the Eastern Transvaal – and the editor found himself in a quandary. His staff returned with aerial pictures of the damage wrought by saboteurs – but the power stations which had come under attack fell under the nebulous National Key Points Act. Could he publish photographs without the risk of going to prison? Eventually, satisfied that his staff had taken pictures from a helicopter outside, but not directly above this key point, he decided to publish.

The editor had been put in a ludicrous position by a ludicrous piece of legislation – the same legislation which the government is now happy to use to stall or prevent full disclosure about the R206m Nkandla upgrade.

And not content with hiding behind legislation which should have been repealed 20 years ago, the government has gone court to delay publication of Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s probe.

Not that tension between the government and the office of the protector are a bad thing – an amount of tension between those who spend and those who probe it is to be expected and is welcome.

But in this instance neither the government nor the protector come out entirely without blame.

The so-called security cluster of government ministers wanted more time to consider what they regarded as potential security risks exposed in the protector’s provisional report. This small concession could easily have been granted given how long it has taken for the report to get to this preliminary stage. In any case it has, de facto, been granted by the postponement of the government’s count application to delay the report from last Friday to this coming Friday. Then there is also the matter of should the protector play, to some small extent, the deadly serious game of politics and allow the ruling party and its government a little leeway? The answer is no – Madonsela is fearless as the protector of public spending, and is to be lauded for the independence she brings to the office.